Māgrontiăcum, or Magontea, a large city of Germany, now called Mentz. Tacitus, bk. 4, Histories, bks. 15 & 23.
Magus, an officer of Turnus, killed by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 522.
Maherbal, a Carthaginian who was at the siege of Saguntum, and who commanded the cavalry of Annibal at the battle of Cannæ. He advised the conqueror immediately to march to Rome, but Annibal required time to consider on so bold a measure; upon which Maherbal observed, that Annibal knew how to conquer, but not how to make a proper use of victory.
Maīa, a daughter of Atlas and Pleione, mother of Mercury by Jupiter. She was one of the Pleiades, the most luminous of the seven sisters. See: [Pleiades]. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 301.——A surname of Cybele.
Majestas, a goddess among the Romans, daughter of Honour and Reverence. Ovid, bk. 5; Fasti, li. 25.
Majoriānus Julius Valerius, an emperor of the western Roman empire, raised to the imperial throne A.D. 457. He signalized himself by his private as well as public virtues. He was massacred, after a reign of 37 years, by one of his generals, who envied in his master the character of an active, virtuous, and humane emperor.
Majorca, the greatest of the islands called Baleares, on the coast of Spain, in the Mediterranean. Strabo.
Mala Fortuna, the goddess of evil fortune, was worshipped among the Romans. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3.
Malēa, a promontory of Lesbos.——Another in Peloponnesus, at the south of Laconia. The sea is so rough and boisterous there, that the dangers which attended a voyage round it gave rise to the proverb of Cum ad Maleam deflexeris, obliviscere quæ sunt domi. Strabo, bks. 8 & 9.—Lucan, bk. 6, li. 58.—Plutarch, Aratus.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 193.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Livy, bk. 21, ch. 44.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 2, poem 16, li. 24; poem 11, li. 20.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 23.
Maleventum, the ancient name of Beneventum. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 27.